Grant Park or The Cross

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Anagallis arvensis
Made by _Topher_ AKA Scarlet Pimpernal and Poor Man's Weatherglass
I went on a small trip to California this weekend. There are tons of wildflowers everywhere you look; too much to photograph.
I'm lucky with this flower... had no idea this was poisonous. Information show if ingested, could kill humans and horses; May cause dermatitis if handled... and I did handle it.
A matted plant with creeping, 4-sided stems, shiny, bright green leaves, and small, flat, bright pinkish-orange flowers at the ends of very slender stalks.
Corolla about 1/4 (6mm) wide, with 5 round lobes united only at base
Flowers March-July thoughout southern Canada and United States; in West, most frequent in California and Oregan.
-National Audubon Society, Field Guide to Wildflowers - Western Region.

Ventura sunset
Made by MyArtistSoul Anticipating a kickass sunset, I was at Grant Park, which is at the west end of town (sorta), and has some elevation. I was in time to catch this. The shore you see is about a mile or so from me, just west of the fairgrounds. The dark low silhouette on the horizon is a Channel Island.
This is the first installment of tonight's remarkable sunset progression. It was like four different sunsets wrapped into one. You can see here it's ready to transition behind some denser clouds, then below that peek out from some mottled broken clouds. And after it dropped below the horizon, the show continued for quite a while. Oh, yeah....lots to enjoy tonight. Stay tuned for more that came during the 30 minutes after this shot.

sunset + aircraft
Made by MyArtistSoul This is part of the series from the protracted 11.05.10 sunset I shot from Grant Park. Sun had dropped behind the horizon and this vintage aircraft appeared out of no where while flying along the shoreline. It turned left (towards me) to circle near Grant Park, then over the river, then continued on its way. I was wishing I was in the back seat!
As it flew past I could see it was OD and had Army on the underside of the wing. I didn't come all that close (the above is shot at 200mm) and didn't make a second pass, so I didn't have a chance to change settings.
See the rest of the series preceding this in the photostream. I've still got a few more of the post-sunset drama to process and post.

snow in Ventura
Made by MyArtistSoul Weather has been cold and rainy lately. Seeing this makes it worthwhile.
I shot this tonight from Grant Park about 2 min before sunset. Grant Park/Serra Cross is up on a ridge about 350 ft above the ocean and less than a mile from it. This view is to the north, toward Lake Casitas. I'm not exactly sure which ridges we are seeing, but I think the highest one, the one with the snow and clouds, is about 10 miles away and the elev is only about 1500 ft. (The tallest peak in the area is Red Mountain at 2000 ft elev).
[Next time I'll have to use my iPhone compass to get some precise bearings so I know exactly what direction I am shooting.]

square cross
Made by MyArtistSoul On Friday late afternoon I left the beach and went up to Grant Park, which is 350 ft elev on a ridge and has a grand view of the coast. The sunset sky was full of dull grey clouds on the horizon with the approaching rain storm and it was getting windier by the minute. I didn't stick around too long.
The original cross was placed here by Father Juniper Serra soon after he founded the San Buenaventura Mission in 1782. The original and several replacements were lost to the elements. The current cross has been there since 1941.

Objects in mirror...
Made by MaryTClark As I was leaving the parking 'area' I noticed the cross appear in my side view mirror, so of course I shot it. That's Ventura's south beach in the background. I was so cold by this time I had to brace my arm on the seat back not to be shaking. It was an impromptu trip and suddenly got a little colder than my cotton sweater could handle, so rolling down the passenger window and letting in that evening chill was another big adventure. What a wussy.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

post-sunset couple
Made by MyArtistSoul I was headed back to my car when I saw this couple, very engaged in conversation. Their body posture struck me as very positive. They were facing south, not much light out that way, their backs to the over-and-done sunset,. (In person it was much darker than appears here.) I cranked up the iso to 1250, went wide open to f/4, and was able to handhold 1/15 sec to get 3 keepers out of 4 shots. Another reason the 70-200mm f/4 is my favorite lens....so versatile!

Ventura sunset
Made by MyArtistSoul More of the Ventura sunset, medium view (70mm) from Grant Park 11.05.10. Awesome transitions from moment to moment...the light show seemed to last forever. I was glad I brought two bodies so I could switch between 10-22mm and 70-200mm instantly.
Stay tuned for more views as the sun drops below that dense cloud and gets very bright, and then goes behind the island horizon. Oh, yeah!

post-sunset tree silhouette
Made by MyArtistSoul Done shooting the sunset at Grant Park on 11.05.10, I was at my car ready to pack up and leave and I saw this. One final shot.
This is the last shot of the 11.05.10 sunset series of about 20 images that precede this one in my photostream. If you like sunsets, I hope you'll take the time to view them all...it was quite an amazing half hour or so.

Grant Park
Made by Extra Medium So I'm home with my family for the weekend. Snuck down here to hang out with my wife and help her out with the kids and to watch the Super Bowl. (go Pats). Just 5 more days of this, and then no more travel for over a month. (I'm sure that'll seem too fast too).

Pierpont Bay Ventura Downtown and Pier seen from Grant Park-2 pseudo-hdr 3d
Made by jaysdesk 3 virtual bracketed exposures(-1, 0, +1ev) from a single 10-bit raw file
To view this in other 3d formats, click on Schillr's flickr API.
view

Toward Oxnard Again
Made by spacetrog Over downtown Ventura, out toward Oxnard, with a faint view of the tallest building in Ventura county, though I don't remember the name of the building right now....
Update: It's the Morgan Stanley building as on the note above....

Panorama From Grant Memorial Park Ventura California
Made by hypermodern The stone ramparts are quite striking as is the view over the Pacific Ocean.
Pete Ippel - Artist / Athlete - hypermodern.net
- Taken at 4:03 PM on May 03, 2010 - uploaded by ShoZu

sunset backlight tree
Made by MyArtistSoul From Grant Park the sun was setting to the SW behind one of the Channel Islands. This is one way to deal with an obnoxioulsy bright sun. It doesn't look that wide, but this was at 10mm.

Pierpont Bay Ventura Downtown and Pier seen from Grant Park hdr 3d
Made by jaysdesk To view this anaglyph in other 3d formats, click on Schillr's flickr API.

post-sunset 11.05.10 at 200mm
Made by MyArtistSoul Sun had set a few minutes earlier. Plenty of clouds in the right places to keep the awesomeness on high. Zoomed in on some of the post-sunset magic from Grant Park.

Ventura sand groins (groynes)
Made by MyArtistSoul Sunset view, from Grant Park, looking south across Pierpont Bay and the sand groins. You can see the harbor, too. The 180mm compresses the perspective a bit.

Japanese dry stone walling, Anoh Method
Made by mappa1001 Built as a workshop project during the International Stonework Symposium 2010, conducted by Jyunji and Suminori Awata.

The Cross
Made by Handcanons Thank You for having a look....
This a sunset view from a lookout called The Cross; in Ventura, California